Since Jan. ‘23, 54 Republican members of Congress have used language associated with the “replacement” theory to call for Secretary Mayorkas’ impeachment
Washington, DC — Today, as the sham impeachment of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas moves to the Senate floor, it is important to step back and take stock of how dangerous anti-immigrant and anti-semitic conspiracy theories are being given one of the highest profile platforms in American government. Right-wing anti-immigrant and anti-semitic lies, conspiracies, and disinformation are driving both the Mayorkas impeachment, and the entire ordeal highlights the larger right-wing push to relentlessly stoke fear over immigration for political purposes – despite the demonstrated real-world dangers and threats to our democracy that these conspiracy theories pose.
As America’s Voice has highlighted, right-wing media and messengers, including the Heritage Foundation and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA), one of the drivers of the Mayorkas impeachment push, have been trying to amplify a falsified “flier” allegedly given by a Jewish immigrant relief organization – on whose board the Secretary used to sit – to migrants crossing the border into the U.S. from Mexico urging them to vote for President Biden. The organization in the crosshairs of Heritage and MTG, HIAS (formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), has no actual relationship to the organization that allegedly issued the false flier and is one of the oldest and most respected non-profit agencies in the U.S.
In a hearing yesterday, MTG attacked Secretary Mayorkas for his alleged ties to the “dark money industrial NGO complex” of illegal immigration revealed in the Heritage Foundation “bombshell.” She linked the Secretary’s impeachment to “financing the invasion of the country but also telling illegal aliens to vote” and declared on X that “They are going to steal the election with illegal votes.” This is the anti-semitic and white nationalist replacement theory, which was the justification for mass murder at the Tree of Light Synagogue in 2018. Rep. Greene was joined by Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC), Rep. Matt Rosenberg (R-MT), Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and Republican candidate in VA-07, Cameron Hamilton in elevating the falsehood and underlying “replacement” conspiracy.
It’s just the latest example of how Republicans’ Mayorkas messaging has mainstreamed dangerous “replacement” and “invasion” conspiracies and lies. Ongoing America’s Voice tracking has found at least 54 Republican members of Congress from the 118th Congress that have used language associated with the “replacement” theory to call for Secretary Mayorkas’ impeachment since January 2023, including at least 170 unique social media posts from just the 11 House Republican Mayorkas impeachment managers.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“The sham impeachment of a Jewish and Latino Cabinet secretary is the latest example of right-wing mainstreaming of the anti-semitic and white nationalist ‘replacement’ conspiracy. This bigoted and deadly conspiracy is the connective tissue for the right in this pivotal election year as they seek to stoke fear and outrage among their base using anti-immigrant and anti-semitic tropes and lies. As we’ve seen time and time again, this mainstreaming of falsehoods and misinformation can have deadly real-world consequences and also lays the groundwork for delegitimizing elections and trust in our democracy. Though the Mayorkas impeachment push will soon fizzle, the larger right-wing and GOP barrage of lies and larger dangers are set to continue.”
As Zachary Mueller, Senior Research Director of America’s Voice, stated yesterday about the fabricated flier and larger implications:
“A gunman killed eleven people and wounded another six – with Holocaust survivors among them – at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018 because of his false conviction that the same Jewish group was facilitating an invasion of the United States. Gunmen in Buffalo and El Paso convicted of mass murder also justified to themselves in recent years that they were fending off an ‘invasion.’ These conspiracy theories come with a body count and years of community trauma, so when several Members of Congress are flippantly spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, the whole country should take notice. No doubt, we can expect a lot more of this dangerous rhetoric as the election approaches, and everyone, including the media, should be on hyper-alert to rebut, debunk, and rebuke it.”
- Read America’s Voice: “Three Key Points About Sham Impeachment of Sec. Mayorkas”
- Read a TIME opinion essay from former Anti-Defamation League (ADL) leader Abraham Foxman, “The Conspiracy Theories Behind the Drive to Impeach Mayorkas”
